The first municipal corporation in India was set up in 1688 at:

The first municipal corporation in India was set up at Madras (now Chennai) in 1688, by the English East India Company.

About the Madras Corporation:

• It was set up by a charter issued by the Company, on the initiative of Sir Josiah Child, the chairman of the Company in London.
• It was modelled on the town corporations of England, with a mayor and aldermen.
• Its main purpose was to raise money through local taxes for local works, such as the repair of roads, drains and town walls.
• It included English, Portuguese and Indian members.
• The people of Madras opposed the new taxes, and the corporation was not very successful at first.
• It is the oldest municipal body in India, and one of the oldest in the Commonwealth outside Britain.
• The Ripon Building, its headquarters in Chennai, was completed in 1913.

Later developments:

• Mayor's Courts were set up in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta in 1726.
• Municipal corporations were later set up in Bombay and Calcutta.
• In the 19th century, municipal bodies were set up in many towns, and Indians were gradually given a role in them.
• After Independence, the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (1992) gave constitutional status to urban local bodies (municipalities).

About Madras:

• The English set up Fort St George at Madraspatnam in 1639-40, under Francis Day and Andrew Cogan.
• It was the first major English fort in India.
• Madras was renamed Chennai in 1996.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Calcutta and Bombay got municipal corporations later.
• ✗Surat was an early English factory, not the site of the first corporation.